The holidays are upon us which means wonderful times with friends and family (and not so wonderful times shopping….which is why I do 90% of my shopping online!).  Many people tend to slow down or even shut down with regards to their business in these last weeks, and if you’re still an investing “newbie” you may be tempted to just wait until 2011 to really get going.

You’re likely saying to yourself things like “Well, nobody is selling right now.” or “The deals will be better in the new year” or “Things are just too busy to work on real estate investing right now.”

No matter what stories you’re telling yourself, I’d like to urge you today to gain some momentum in these last six weeks prior to the new year.  If you’re concerned about getting overwhelmed, I have a suggestion for you:

Choose just one accomplishment for each week for the rest of this year and knock it out of the ballpark so you can end the year strong.

I’m not talking about huge accomplishments that have 10-20 steps that have to be taken.  I’m talking one focused task that you can accomplish within a week even with all of the holiday planning, shopping, and working that you’re doing.

Here are six ideas for you to get the wheels turning (plus some awesome reference blog posts for you to check out):

1.) Get organized with a 7-day action plan

2.) Research investing strategies and determine your desired area of focus (BiggerPockets blogger Peter Giardini did an excellent series on this – read the entire thing!)

3.) Go to a local real estate club meeting (there’s probably one or two more before the year ends!)

4.) Pick your key farm areas for deal hunting

5.) Begin marketing for motivated sellers using cheap or free methods (and yes there are still homes for sale in November/December – I closed on one just this week)

6.) Study your competition (i.e. learn from what other investors in your market are doing)

Depending how much action you’ve taken to date, this list of six may or may not be relevant for you, but you get the idea. There’s nothing magical about the month of January, however you can certainly help make some magic happen towards closing your next deal in January (or even earlier) if you simply make the choice to keep moving forward now instead of waiting.

In fact, don’t even wait for tomorrow.  Write down your list of six accomplishments now and just get going!  You’ll thank me for this when you’re rockin’ already in January

Photo: Steve Jurvetson

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A Message to New Investors: Don’t Wait for 2011

WHAT… you say!

Be patient and I will explain.

I am a huge fan of fellow BiggerPockets Blog author Jeff Brown.  I make it a point to read everything Jeff writes.  He gets real estate investing… not because he has read a few books… but because he has lived it!  The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I have detected in many of his articles a subtle theme that, when fully understood by every investor, will accelerate their business and all but guarantee their profits.

And that is where the title of this article comes into play.  It is Jeff’s theme!

When I was first confronted with the notion that I ”didn’t know… what I didn’t know” I thought my mentor at that time had just lost his mind.  Interesting thought, given that he sold his business in the past couple of years for millions.

Let me explain this concept and how it applies to you. 

It goes like this…

You know, what you know!  Well, that’s fairly simple isn’t it?  You know that you know simple math like that required of most real estate deals.  You know that one of the basics of real estate investing is that you have to find a quality deal.  How do you know these things?  Simple… you do them everyday.

You know, what you don’t know!  Again, fairly simple.  You know that you don’t know brain surgery.  You know that you can’t fly on your own.  You know that you don’t know a foreign language (go with the example here).  Again, how do you know these things… most likely because you made a conscience decision not to know them.

You don’t know, what you know!  Hmmm, its getting a bit more complicated.  At one level breathing fits into this category.  It’s something that we don’t think about… we just do it.  In fact, unless specifically trained, we never give it much thought.

And finally…

You don’t know, what you don’t know!  Let me share a real life example.  I met with a new investor a couple of weeks ago.  This investor was just starting out, and like many “newbies” she wanted to get started as a wholesaler.  In my discussions with her it was obvious that she was smart, motivated and understood the basics of real estate investing.  In other words, she seemed to have a good grasp on the first three concepts above. 

As I was discussing both the general concepts and the many details to be managed by a successful wholesaler, I watched as she started to grapple with a new reality.  A reality that said:

Oh My Gosh… this is harder then I thought.  In other words… I don’t know, what I don’t know!

And then I watched as another new reality hit. If I don’t know this basic stuff and didn’t realize that I even needed to know it, what else don’t I know? 

And, how do I go about figuring out what it is I don’t know but need to know? 

Yet another million dollar question!

And that is Jeff’s theme. So many investors continue to struggle not because they:

Know what they know… or

Know what they don’t know… or

Don’t know what they know…

NO…

They struggle because THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY DON’T KNOW, and they don’t stop long enough to find someone who having gone before them, has walked in their footsteps, carried the scars, and who can now claim that they know what they know precisely because of those experiences.

HAVE I GOT YOUR ATTENTION?

I hope so, because in today’s market, a market where the “new normal” changes quickly and sometimes drastically, if there are things you need to know but you are not even aware that you need to know them… you are TOAST!

Fear not, there is a solution!

1. Network, network, network.  This market is not the time to go it alone!
2. Ask questions — as many questions as you can get away with.  You will find that often times the real answer, the answer to the question you didn’t even know to ask, will be revealed only through continued questions.
3. Actively participate on the BiggerPockets Forums.  The amount of information exchanged on a daily basis is as good as any ten bootcamps you could attend.
4. At the risk of contradicting the recommendations above, be selective about who seek advice from.  As Jeff says, if they haven’t written more then 5000 words regarding their field of expertise… be careful.

In closing… always keep in mind that we can never cure our lack of knowledge on any particular subject.  As they say…

It’s a journey… enjoy the ride and never stop learning.

Photo: CarbonNYC

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

You Don’t Know… What You Don’t Know!

Most beginners get lost in a world of information.  They analyze and try every strategy but never focus or become a master at one real estate investing strategy.  I suggest an alternative plan, which will simplify things and increase the likelihood of your success.  Here are 5 simple steps for investing beginners. 

1. Pick one and only one strategy – Avoid confusion, spinning your wheels, and analysis paralysis.  Pick only one strategy and commit to becoming a master; by doing so, your learning curve becomes minimal, your to do list becomes simple, focused and success becomes realistic.  Eliminating all the various other strategies helps you to become productive, knowledgeable and achieve master status.
2. Focus on areas to invest – Similar to above, become a master in a few areas.  By slimming down your farm, your to do list becomes simple, you become productive, a master of your focused areas and success is yours for the taking.
3. Document your plan to find, finance, do and exit deals – In this step you will further dial into your strategy.  By doing so, you will be able to delegate, automate, and build a team and your systems.
4. Implement – Don’t stop now, you are close to realizing your goals and achieving success.  Implement your to do list every day.  This is where you bridge the gap between learning and doing.  Many stop at learning and understanding the concepts and theories.  Doers apply and implement what they learn.  Become a Doer!
5. Critique and Improve – Look at your strategy, and the areas you focus on, including your plan, your team, and your systems like you were an outsider.  Even have mentors, fellow investors and other experts in your strategy look at what you are doing.  What can be improved?  What will improve your effectiveness, efficiency and help you realize your goals?  Most importantly, what will most improve your profits?  Go back to step 1, critique and improve on each step then start the process over periodically to achieve continuous improvement. 

Do you find this helpful?  What has and has not worked for you as a beginner?  Please share your story and share helpful advice so we can all make 2010 and beyond, a success!

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

5 Simple Steps for Beginner Real Estate Investors

Can you imagine someone saying to you, “I want your advice and I want you to be brutally honest with me. Of course, if you don’t tell me what I want to hear I’ll assume you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ridiculous right? Yet it happens all the time.

This brings to mind one of my all time favorite movie scenes from A Few Good Men.

Tom Cruise character:  I want the truth!

Jack Nicholson character: You can’t handle the truth!

As a veteran real estate investor I am often approached by newbies who read a book, took a guru course, or heard something from somebody somewhere about a surefire way to make money. They’re bubbling with enthusiasm and excited about the “secret” they just discovered and can’t wait for someone to validate their belief. If I don’t they’ll assume I’m not “in the know.” If they don’t want my opinion why do they ask for it?

Popular Delusions

Most of these wanna-be tycoons are looking for a shortcut. Common denominators seem to be that they have no cash, credit scores barely north of absolute zero, little or no income, nonexistent work ethic, and a need for instant gratification. Real Estate gurus and other hucksters seek out these neophytes, feed these misguided beliefs, and drain as much cash out of them as possible.

Why do people fall for this garbage? Because they want to believe that being wealthy involves a secret of some sort. They are willing to max out credit cards or borrow money to learn the tricks of the trade. In order to save you time, money, and a boatload of trouble I will now reveal the secret to being truly successful in real estate or just about any other venture.  Are you ready? Here it is:

Hard Work

Not what you wanted to hear? Then you can assume that I don’t know what I’m talking about. On the other hand, maybe it’s possible that I learned a thing or two in almost twenty years of real estate investing.

Secret of Success

I’ve come to know a good number of successful real estate investors over the years. They made their money in a wide variety of ways: Residential rentals, rehabs, apartment buildings, commercial development, land, etc. Their area of focus may be different and their methods may vary but they all have some things in common.

Success Traits:

• Hard work
• Willing to take risks
• Don’t follow the herd
• Avoid being over leveraged
• Educate themselves about their niche
• Set goals with action plan
• Patience

This list is not pulled out of a book; it’s from my personal observations and certainly isn’t all-encompassing. If you want to be successful at something, seek out someone who already is. Do what they do not what some book or guru says.

You can’t teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar. – David H. Sandler (Corporate sales trainer)

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This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Do You Really Want Real Estate Advice

For beginners, wholesaling is definitely the best real estate investing strategy.  Not only do you not need a lot of money or great credit but you do not need years of experience.  It’s fast, low risk and as a beginner you can learn many of the fundamentals needed to achieve success with almost every strategy.  Here are some essential fundamentals you will learn by wholesaling. 

1.  How to find deals – Learn to get a steady flow of prospects into your pipeline, efficiently filter out the duds and cherry pick only the best deals.
2. Build a buyers list – Build your buyers list by networking, ads, marketing to a list from title of recent investor buyers, etc.
3. Market and sell deals – Learn what investors are looking for, how to market and sell deals.  Get backup offers too.
4. Write contracts – Learn to write contracts to creatively buy and sell real estate.

This brings us to an interesting challenge.  Banks and sellers usually do not allow the buyers name on the offer to include “and or assigns”.  If you can, always write this into your offer.  If you cannot, here are some solutions, because you can wholesale REOs.

1.  Double close – Use your own, and investors or flip funds to complete a double close.  Find a title company that is investor friendly.  The seller will deed the property to you, then you deed it to the buyer.
2. Sell the entity– Write your offers in the name of an LLC, if you haven’t already created the LLC upon excepted offer, then sell the LLC to the buyer.  You will actually save money on fees from a double close this way.

If you are a beginner stuck without a strategy, in analysis paralysis and/or spinning your wheels wholesaling is the strategy for you.  How else can you make fast money with none of your own money or credit (or at least the bare minimum cash)?  All it takes is time and effort which will result in invaluable experience.  Happy Investing!

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Wholesale Tips: You Can Wholesale REOs

Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all. ~Brian Tracy

As aspiring real estate investors and experienced ones, we’ve all likely had moments when we suffered from analysis paralysis. These are the moments where we research, plan, evaluate, research, plan, evaluate, in an endless cycle and are paralyzed from taking action. Typically its due to fear of screwing something up.

I’ve been there…but what I’ve found in any business venture that I’ve started or been involved in over the past 10 years is that taking action, making mistakes and adjusting is really the only way to success. It always seems like highly successful people just did things overnight, but they didn’t! Sure, a person may have had good fortune, but know that it was combined with a lot of action and plenty of mistakes — some small and maybe some not so small mistakes!

I think many of us actually KNOW this, but its easy to forget and it is such a critical component to success, so I thought I’d share 5 of my favorite tips for overcoming analysis paralysis.

1. Practice decisiveness.  This is actually an interesting exercise.  Many of us (including me) have a tendency to take too long to make the most basic of decisions.  For example, what to eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner….or which template to use for a business card…stuff like that.  To practice decisiveness, you actually make a decision in 60 seconds or less.  Every time.  You can practice this on the small issues and then the slightly larger issues (both personal and business related decisions) and eventually you’ll be able to do this with the larger decisions. 

Don’t get me wrong…you want to ensure you have enough information to be reasonably confident in your decision when it comes to those few large, high value, highly significant issues, but once you have the data, make a decision and make it quickly.

2. Set a deadline for planning. Planning is very important, but its also easy to make the excuse that we haven’t done enough planning yet to take action. Set a deadline and be strict about it.

Let’s say you’re new to real estate and want to get your feet wet and build capital with wholesaling and you’ve pretty much educated yourself on the process. Great! Now its time for you to put together a plan for finding buyers and finding deals. Create a deadline for your plan — for a few hours, not 30 hours! Put the focused time in on the plan and then get busy taking action.

3. Have an attitude that embraces “Good Enough is Good Enough” — it’s not going to be perfect at the start, so once its good enough, you’re good to go! Successful people take action and make adjustments as they go along. Mistakes are a part of continuous improvement and the faster we accept that the better!

4. Remove complexity. When you make things too complicated for yourself, its easy to think that more analysis is required before action can take place. Don’t over-complicate things. Break down your plans into multiple simple actions that you can get busy on today.

5. Build momentum fast! One of the best ways to break the paralysis of analysis is to build momentum by staying focused and taking action. This is a step by step process and as you’re making progress, you’re building momentum, and once you have that, fight to maintain it and success is yours.

It’s better to be 80 percent sure and make things happen than it is to wait until you are 100 percent sure because by then, the opportunity will have already passed you by. ~John Maxwell

What are some other ways that you personally overcome analysis paralysis?

Photo:

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

5 Ways to Overcome Analysis Paralysis

Over the last month I’ve received a number of emails from new investors saying something like this:

“People have been saying that you can get started in real estate with no cash and bad credit, but I just haven’t been able to make any progress and I’m wondering what I’m missing and if this is just a lie from gurus looking to make a buck.”

The issue in some cases is a lack of action or a lack of persistence, however let’s put those two issues aside for a moment and focus on the concern that you can’t get started in real estate without cash or credit.

One thing I know for sure from speaking to investors for the past few years is that the ones who actually started with very little cash and bad (or no) credit are some of the most successful investors.  I believe this is primarily because they had no choice other than to be creative and resourceful.  Once you can make something out of nothing, just imagine how effective you can be!  Don’t let this be a hindrance for you — let it be a motivator!

In one my previous posts, A 7-Day Plan for Aspiring Real Estate Investors, I mentioned that I strongly believe that you at least need a little operating cash to get started even if its for gas in your car or stamps, but a few sacrifices with your discretionary spending in a month can help with that (e.g. reduce your dining out, turn cable off)!

If you’re cash strapped but want to get started quickly, consider some of the following options:

• Do joint ventures with other active wholesalers in your area — you can make at least $1-2K with each deal and this can help you build capital
• Drive for dollars, looking for abandoned/vacant properties and finding the owners to see if they are motivated to sell
• Dial for dollars, calling all the for rent signs in your area and finding motivated landlords who want to sell their properties
• Look into mobile home investing where all the price tags are smaller than single family homes or commercial buildings

These ideas should at least get your wheels turning.  There’s absolutely no reason why you can’t get started regardless of your financial resources (or lack thereof).  Get educated on the approach you want to take, and just go out there and do it!  There are many experts right here on BiggerPockets who generously share the “how to” and their experiences with various real estate investing strategies.

Would love to hear any other ideas that investors have that might help aspiring investors with little cash get started.

Photo: Jen&Amy

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Why “Little Cash and No Credit” Should Be A Motivator

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with a work at home mother of 2 young children who is brand new to the real estate investing game.  Within 10 minutes of speaking with her, I learned that she had completed 4 wholesale deals over the past few months….and while that is impressive, what is even more awesome is that it was just recently in November 2009 when she first heard about wholesaling as a way to get started in real estate.  Talk about a woman of action!

I won’t elaborate on our entire conversation, but she seemed unaware of how significant this accomplishment is.

She’s clearly a high-achiever who is just focused on doing her best and forward relentless motion, but I think we all have to agree that she has accomplished something special.  How many people research and research and read a course and another one and another one before ever taking any steps forward — much less completing 4 deals within the first few months?!?

All of this brings me to my 3 words of advice for new real estate investors.

Acknowledge Your Successes

If you don’t acknowledge your successes the same way you acknowledge your mistakes, you’re sure to have a memory full of blunders. ~Jack Canfield

It’s so important to train your brain to acknowledge your successes, both large ones and small ones. Why?  Because it reinforces your goals, helps you stay focused on the prize and persevere despite obstacles, plus it gives you hope that you’ll actually reach your desired destination (which you will if you persist!).

This is actually one of the main reasons I started a blog a couple years ago.  I wanted to openly share as I took steps forward…and some backwards…and then forward again!  You don’t need to start a blog as a new investor, but you should definitely keep a written daily log that acknowledges each success.  Take a few minutes to reflect on it. Don’t always keep it to yourself either!  Share those successes with others around you when you have an opportunity.  Not only does this help you, but you’ll inspire someone else.  Whenever you’re facing a setback and can’t seem to remember all the positive momentum you’ve gained, you can always go back to that log as a reminder to persist.

There’s another side to this as well which I learned this from Og Mandino’s book The Greatest Salesman in the World.  It said:

Never allow yesterday’s success to lull you into today’s complacency — forget the happenings of the day that is gone (whether good or bad) and greet the new sun with confidence that this will be the best day of your life.

So yes, acknowledge your success at the end of the day but be careful not to get comfortable and ride on that success for the next few days. You put out some bandit signs.  You put an offer on a property. Great!  When the sun rises again the next day, go do another 2 or 3 things key things to move your business along.

….and don’t forget to enjoy the ride!

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This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

3 Words of Advice for New Real Estate Investors

Best-selling author and motivational coach Mike Litman often says “You don’t have to get it right. You just have to get it going.” Getting started can be one of the most challenging hurdles for aspiring real estate investors. You may frequently hear people talk about the importance of taking “massive action” but as I thought about this yesterday I realized that some people simply feel stuck and massive action becomes an elusive concept. That being said, today I want to focus on simple things…baby steps!

If you’re thinking to yourself “Baby steps? It’s going to take me forever. I need to go big!,” I encourage you to consider whether you’ve taken any big steps already. If the answer is no, I respectfully ask you to reconsider that thought and just focus on getting some “action practice” with baby steps that can help you overcome analysis paralysis.  I can tell you with full confidence that once you start doing a few things that are uncomfortable for you, it will snowball and before you know  it you’ll be taking the type of massive action that you desire and need for yourself.

I’m not necessarily suggesting that you do all these steps (although I think its a good idea), nor am I suggesting any particular order. What this exercise is about is practicing doing something. This is simply “action practice” and it costs nothing.

1. Determine what’s important to you and write down why you’re doing real estate investing
2. Drive around for 15-30 minutes writing down the phone numbers on “For rent” signs.  Call 1 or 2 of them and just tell them you’re just getting started with investing in the area where their property is and see what input they have about the neighborhood and see what else they may be willing to share. [This is all about getting practice calling landlords. You may end up doing a lot more of this!]
3. Find a home with a “For Sale By Owner” sign and a car in the driveway….go knock on the door and ask the person about their home for sale. How much are they looking for? Why are they selling? You never know what you’ll find out!
4. Find an experienced investor at a REIA meeting or online here on BiggerPockets and have a 20-min phone chat about how they got started and overcame hurdles.
5. Pick one neighborhood within driving distance of your house and start researching! First go to zillow.com and determine which homes were recently sold (past 3 months) as well as those that are actively listed and print out that list.  Then go drive that neighborhood and drive by the homes.  You’re doing research and getting a sense of the types of homes in the area and the values. This is a great exercise regardless of your investing strategy of choice.

There are so many options of simple things you can do to just get going! Once you feel comfortable practicing taking action for your real estate investing, make sure you go back and determine your goals and put a real action plan together because they will help you stay organized and laser focused on your single goal.

For those who are new or experienced investors, what other ideas would you add to this list?

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This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Just Do Something! 5 Baby Steps to Ease New Investor Fears

You’ve probably heard that one of the fastest ways to get what you want is to surround yourself with people who already have it.

I’m a firm believer in this, and frankly its something I’m still working to do more of.   Whether you’re a novice or an experienced investor, the advice is solid. It’s simply hard to be unsuccessful when you are spending significant time with successful people.

Everyone has their own personal definition of what success looks like, but for the purposes of this post, I’m referring to success in the specific area of real estate investing.  To begin spending more time with successful people, I’d like to encourage you to find three real estate investors who have already reached the success you’re striving for and simply ask them if they would be willing to spend 30 minutes with you to answer a few of your burning questions and discuss their success in real estate investing.

You may have to conduct the conversation over phone, however you may be able to secure an in-person meeting over coffee or lunch (compliments of you, of course but it will be worth every penny spent).  Don’t be timid about reaching out to the investors — if you ask not, you have not.  I’ve found that people are often (but certainly not always) willing and happy to share their stories and lessons learned. Be humble yet direct about your desire to speak with them.

“Quality questions create a quality life.  Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”
Anthony “Tony” Robbins, entrepreneur, motivator and advisor to leaders across the globe

You want to respect the investors time and also maximize the opportunity, so be sure to know the questions you want to ask ahead of time.  Here are a number of questions you may want to consider, and I’m certain that you’ll come up with some better ones:

1. What were the biggest challenges you faced when you first started investing in real estate?
2. How did you work through these challenges?
3. What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made or seen others make in real estate investing?
4. Can you tell me about the most challenging real estate transaction that you ever completed?
5. What are your fundamental principles for real estate investing success?
6. How important is ongoing education in topics of business, investing, and real estate strategies to you?
7. What is the single most powerful piece of advice you have ever received when it comes to real estate investing?
8. Do you have any mentors? In what areas of your personal and/or financial growth have your mentors been helpful to you?

What’s great about this exercise is that not only do you learn from those 30 minute conversations, but you also have the opportunity to expand your network. What other questions do you think would be good to ask?  Remember – when you ask better questions, you get better answers!

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Note from the Editor: I thought we’d remind any readers that we regularly conduct interviews with real estate investors that you can find at: Meet the Investor. It’ll give you a feel for the info you might get from interviewing people as Shae suggests.

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This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

30-Minute Conversations to Real Estate Success

It’s pretty common for spouses or significant others to be really nervous and potentially downright unsupportive when you begin your quest as a wildly successful real estate investor. I’m blessed to have a spouse who is my partner in business and we work very well together, but this is not always the case.

I’m not a family or marriage counselor nor am I a psychologist, however I’d still like to share some advice on this topic and you can take it for whatever its worth to you.  Here goes:

(1) Understand the concerns

It’s really important to understand and respect others’ feelings. Ask him or her what the concerns are. It could be a number of things. For example:

• She fears losing significant amounts of money and jeopardizing the family’s finances
• He is concerned you’ll take too much time away from the family and household responsibilities
• She thinks that you’re just doing it because your friend Joe is doing it too
• He doesn’t believe you’ll follow through because you’ve started and quit things in the past

If you understand his or her concerns, you’ll be able to work together to address them.

(2) Discuss family goals

I hope you’ve already determined WHY you want to be a successful real estate investor. That “why” is of critical importance and your significant other should be a part of it. If you’ve never discussed the goals you want to achieve as a family, now is a great time to do so. Once you know the “why”, it may become clearer why real estate investing should be key part of how to get where you want to go and together you can make some financial goals for the investing. Assuming the idea is to generate long term wealth and passive income source, it is easy to “work the numbers” together and see the benefits of real estate investing long term. Of course if the primary idea is to generate faster cash in the short term, there are strategies to accomplish that as well. Regardless of the intent, it should all be connected to your personal and family “why.”

(3) Discuss the financial impact on the family

Your real estate investing efforts may require some low monthly costs as you’re working towards doing your first deal. Be sure to demonstrate how the family budget can support these costs (and if for some reason it can’t, better be prepared to put in a few extra hours to raise the money or find a way to reduce your personal expenses).

(4) Discuss how you’ll balance business and family/couple time

Make sure to set some parameters on your time – make a schedule and keep it. Even though my husband is very supportive and works right along with me, I have a stronger tendency to work long hours late into the night and we had to agree on a time the business shuts off so that we can spend quality time together.  Sometimes you may be working on something that will take you off your schedule — if so, make sure that you consult your significant other regarding the break of schedule and the time that you’ll need to finish your business.

(5) Provide updates as often as your significant other wants them

In some cases, your significant other may simply not understand real estate investing and may be more comfortable if you share as you’re learning and share as you’re doing. In other cases, he or she may have absolutely no interest at all in hearing about your real estate investing. In those cases, only share the good news and pay close attention to item #6 below!

(6) Be consistent and hustle to get some early successes

There’s simply nothing better than good news and results to help get your significant other onboard!  Take massive and consistent action and get some early successes that will make him or her proud…perhaps even excited!

Don’t be discouraged when you feel like there is a lack of support in the household for your real estate investing.  If you feel strongly about being a real estate investor, invest the time in the steps above, maintain a positive attitude, and lead by example.  The only way to lose is to quit.

Photo cred: joegreer2007

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Your Signficant Other Hates Real Estate Investing – Now What?

Every business must start with a business plan.  No matter how simple, not having a plan is planning to fail.  The biggest mistake I see with investors is never creating a business plan with focus on one strategy.  They spread themselves too thin and never master their craft.  Here is an outline of a very simple business plan.  At minimum I recommend starting with this and building on it weekly. 

1. Mission Statement – When people ask you what you do, what do you tell them?  This is your purpose for existence and includes the benefit you provide.  Research and come up with a solid mission statement.
2. Strategy – Pick one strategy and become a master.  Focus all of you efforts on perfection and automate a system that runs your strategy whether you are there or not.
3. Market – Define your market.  Many are only comfortable with their local market.  Me on the other hand, I did tons of research to identify markets with great returns and ability to mitigate risk.  Now I focus on one state where I can cherry pick from incredible LTVs and rent to purchase ratios.
4. Criteria – Define your LTV, cash flow, max purchase amount, max rehab amount, max timeframe, etc.  Stick to your criteria, walk away from any deal that does not meet your criteria.  If you are not finding enough deals to cherry pick from, change your market and/or strategy.
5. How to find deals, marketing plan – How are you going to automate a system so motivated sellers come to you?  MLS, agents, online searches, direct mail to lists, other?  This is the 2^nd biggest mistake, investors do not find good enough deals and it all comes down to marketing and persistence with their marketing plan.
6. How to finance deals – Are you using conventional, hard money, private money, equity or JV partners, seller financing, lease options, other?  This is often a challenge in today’s market and private money is a tremendous solution.  Learn to generate private money!
7. How to do deals – How are you going to turn a purchase of a property into profit?  Clearly define the steps.  Repairs, rent, management, implementation of exit strategies, etc.
8. Exit strategies, Backup Plans – One of the most important sections, especially to investors.  How are you going to exit the deal?  What are your backup plans as it is wise to have multiple exit strategies?  Do you flip, lease option, wholesale, bird dog, sell the note, sell the entity holding title, rent and hold, other?
9. Team & Systems – Clearly define your team and systems used to delegate and automate tasks.  A true entrepreneur will step away from the daily processes and the business will run whether you are there or not.
10. Illustrate example deals – Illustrate LTV, cash flow numbers and cash on cash return for example deals.  Include images of properties and show your successful track record here if possible.
11. Financials – Include financials for the timeframe of your strategy.

 Once you have completed the first version of your business plan, get feedback.  Have other investors and even consult a professional business plan writer.  Your business plan is the backbone of your business success and always your first step to success.

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Outline of a Real Estate Business Plan, the first step to success